Guiding Question:
How can I communicate complex ideas clearly while developing an identifiable scholarly voice?

Learning Objectives

• recognize scholarly voice as rhetorically constructed;

• develop appropriate authorial presence;

• distinguish confident claims from overclaims;

• use hedging and emphasis strategically;

• improve paragraph coherence;

• improve clarity and concision.

Reading

Lingard L., & Watling C. (2024). The writer's voice repertoire: Exploring how health researchers accomplish a distinctive ‘voice’ in their writing. Med Educ, 58(5), 523-534. doi:10.1111/medu.15298

Mentor Reading

Selected passages from Furberg & Silseth (2022).

Topics

• Scholarly voice

• Authorial presence

• Stance

• Hedging

• Emphasis

• Engagement with readers

• Metadiscourse

• Paragraph architecture

• Cohesion and flow

• Active and passive voice

• Clarity and concision

Workshop — Three Levels of Revision

Write/bring approximately 1,500–2,000 words.

Level 1 — Argument

Is the intellectual purpose clear?

Level 2 — Paragraph

Does each paragraph perform identifiable work?

Level 3 — Sentence

Is the writing clear, economical, and precise?

Submit:

• original text;

• substantially revised text;

• one-page commentary explaining the most important revisions and why they were made.